adder stone
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From adder + stone. The word is attested since the late 16th century, its earliest use being found in a work by Arthur Golding (c. 1536 – 1606).[1] The perforation was imagined to be made by the sting of an adder.[2]
Pronunciation
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Hyphenation: ad‧der stone
Noun
adder stone (plural adder stones)
- A stone of varying forms and usually glassy with a naturally formed hole, which is often used as an amulet or bead.
- 1918, Astra Cielo, Signs, Omens and Superstitions, New York, N.Y.: George Sully and Company, →OCLC, page 63:
- Adder stones are supposed to be efficacious against disease of cattle.
- 1963, Archie Carr, The Reptiles, New York, N.Y.: Time-Life Books, →OCLC, page 149:
- These adder stones were actually old beads found about the countryside, but the Druids claimed that they were produced by a group reproductive effort of a summer congress of adders, and held some of the magic of the parent snakes. Adder stones strengthened their owners in legal disputes and helped them get access to kings.
- 2014, Mark Rogers, The Esoteric Codex: Magic Objects I, : Lulu Press, Inc., page 15:
- An adder stone is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it.
- 2015, Colleen Houck, Reawakened, New York, N.Y.: Delacorte Press, →ISBN:
- I saw a flash on the stony hill on the other side of the pool, as if a mirror were reflecting the light cast by the hole in Dr. Hassan′s adder stone.
Synonyms
Translations
stone with a naturally formed hole
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References
- ^ “adder-stone”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- ^ Joseph Wright (1898) The English Dialect Dictionary, volumes I (A–C), London: Published by Henry Frowde, Amen Corner, E.C., page 15
Further reading
- “adder-stone”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.